School of Law Plays Key Role in Prosecution of Russian Environmental War Crimes in Ukraine
From Jan. 19-23, 2025, Case Western Reserve School of Law professor Michael Scharf led a team of experts to assist 35 Ukrainian prosecutors and four judges in preparing for upcoming cases charging Russian officials with the commission of environmental war crimes and the crime of ecocide. Russia has used attacks against the environment as a weapon of war to demoralize the Ukrainian population. Ukraine is responding in the courtroom with criminal trials focusing on military commanders.
“Case Western Reserve is once again playing an important role on the world stage," said Scharf, who is president of the American Branch of the International Law Association and served as dean of the Law School from 2013-2024. "The upcoming Ukraine environmental war crimes trials will be watched closely by jurists and diplomats around the world.”
The unique training program was sponsored and organized by the London-based International Bar Association, whose executive director, Mark Ellis, spoke at the School of Law in September 2025. Scharf, who also worked with Ukrainian prosecutors for a week in Poland in October 2024, helped design the program.
The mock trial and simulations covered upcoming Ukraine cases involving the flooding of coal mines and destruction of nature reserves in Russian-occupied territories in eastern Ukraine, as well as cases involving the destruction of the Karkhova Dam and the drone attack on the Chernobyl reactor containment shield. During the five-day program, the IBA team helped the prosecutors prepare opening and closing statements. They also led discussions about the evidence the prosecutors planned to present and the ways they can best respond to likely defense counsel arguments.
The program was held in the city of Rzeszów, located just across the border from Ukraine. During the program, the participants' cell phones emitted air-raid sirens every few hours, as back home their towns came under attack by Russian drones.
The IBA team of experts included CWRU law alum Andre Monette (LAW ’06), who is an expert in international environmental law working at Barnes and Thornburg LLP in Los Angeles. "With Case Western Reserve’s top-ranked international law and environmental law programs, I received an education that provided me the expertise I needed to help the Ukrainians try cases that will set precedents for international law.”
In addition to Scharf and Monette, CWRU had another connection to the training program as one of the participating judges, Ganna Vronska of the Ukraine Supreme Court, had been a visiting law student in 1994.
With the participation of Scharf, Monette and Judge Vronska, CWRU had an outsized impact on this incredibly important program. The upcoming trials in Ukraine will be the first in history to prosecute war crimes against the environment and the new crime of ecocide. "The trials are expected to begin in the next few months," said Scharf.
